BEAUDENOM, LÉOPOLD. - Ascetical writer, born at Tulle on 23 Nov. 1840, died at Puteaux on 21 Dec. 1916. A much sought-after spiritual director and chaplain to the Ursulines, he entered the Marists in 1875, in order to fulfil his desire to be a missionary; but his poor health prevented him from continuing. Having returned to serve as chaplain to various communities, he was obliged by exhaustion to retire to Puteaux, where, during the twenty years remaining to him, he wrote his ascetical works, attuned to the methods and doctrines of St Ignatius and St Francis de Sales,
and, out of humility, wished them to appear anonymously until his death.
Formation à l'humilité et par elle aux autres vertus (Paris 1897; Italian trans., Turin 1938); Pratique de l'examen particulier d'après s. Ignace (ibid. 1898); Pratique progressive de la confession et de la direction (2 vols., ibid. 1900; Italian trans., Turin 1935-40); Les sources de la piété (ibid. 1908, Italian trans., Turin 1938); which constitutes, as it were, the third part of the preceding work; Formation morale et religieuse de la jeune fille (2 vols., ibid. 1906-11; Italian trans., Turin, n.d.); Méditations affectives pratiques sur l'Évangile (4 vols., ibid. 1912-18, the 4th posthumous; Italian trans., Florence 1939). B. would have wished to add a 5th volume on the mysteries of the Resurrection. Other posthumous works: Lettres de direction (Paris 1919); Orientation de l'âme vers la perfection (ibid. 1920).